GRILSE 33 
It is in salt water that salmon obtain the chief part 
of their food, and hence they fall off in condition in 
proportion to the time of their abode in rivers.” 
We need not enter for the present on the vexed 
question of the non-feeding of salmon in fresh water ; 
suffice it to say that grilse, like salmon, as a rule 
enter our rivers in a highly nourished state. They 
follow shoals of herring to a considerable distance 
from the mouth of their native river, and they show 
remarkable cleverness, whether they swim in com- 
pany or individually, in finding their way back 
again. The fact that grilse are taken in bag-nets 
set at considerable distances from the mouths of 
rivers is sufficient to show that the wandering must 
be fairly wide. Of course in the early stages of 
their growth the fixed nets set on our coasts would 
not retain them, since the mesh is a wide one 
adapted specially for their safety. On the east 
coast of Scotland the annual close time terminates 
in most districts on February 10, and fixed nets are 
again put in the water. Although during the first 
of the season it is possible that the small growing 
grilse would still pass through the mesh, we are, I 
think, quite justified in believing that, were the fish 
on the coast, grilse would be got in fair numbers 
before May. The fact that grilse do not occur, or 
practically do not appear, in the coast nets till May 
leads one to infer that until about that time they are 
not within the netted zone. Asarule in Scotland 
the earliest grilse seem to appear on the coasts of 
Banff and Aberdeen, where a few begin to appear 
about the middle of April. The record for earliness 
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